The One With The Lunch In The Park
by Lianna H
Summary: Having lunch in the park includes eating sandwiches and, most importantly, looking for potential boyfriends. Not just a fling, but someone who meets the requirements. Someone unexpected did. Pre-Mondler, one-shot, canon.


A/N: Here is another one-shot and it's once again canon. Surprising, huh? This one takes place in the beginning of the third season, sometime after 'The One With The Metaphorical Tunnel'.

Disclaimer: I don't own the characters, the actors, the apartments or the whole show in general. I never have, but who knows, maybe one day I will.

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 **The One With The Lunch In The Park**

"What about that guy?"

"Pheebs, that's a hot dog vendor."

"So? He's cute."

"He is bold, fat, looks older than fifty and I think he hasn't showered or shaved since Christmas."

"But I thought Monica liked older men. Plus he cooks. I mean, it's a match made in heaven."

"Mon, help me?" Rachel said helplessly, looking at Monica. "What do you think?"

"Huh?" Monica turned her head toward her friends, who sat opposite of her.

"Come on, Mon," Rachel said annoyed, "we brought you here to find a boyfriend for you."

Monica frowned. "I thought we went to the park to have lunch?"

"Well, that too."

"So," Phoebe broke the silence that followed, "what do you think of him?"

Monica looked into the direction Phoebe was pointing to. "Pheebs, you could practically see the flies around him."

"That's just a sign that he likes animals and that animals like him."

"He sells dead animals," Monica shot back.

Phoebe sighed. "Okay, you're right."

"Have I ever not been?"

"He has positive sides too. For example, he cooks, and he is older than you…" Phoebe trailed off.

Monica sighed. "Okay, I give you the cooking thing, but," she said, waving her hand in the general direction of the vendor, "it's easy to see he doesn't care about hygiene at all. Besides, he is too old. It's true that I prefer a boyfriend who is older than me, but only a few years. Not someone who is like, twenty years older. Then you have the problem that you want different things because you are at a different stage in life. There was a reason I broke up with Richard, remember?"

"Yeah," Phoebe admitted, "I always forget about that."

"So, we are looking for a man, who is approximately thirty years old and wants to have children," Rachel summarized.

"Exactly," Monica confirmed.

"But how do we know if a particular guy likes to have kids, without having to ask him?" Rachel questioned.

"That's easy," Phoebe answered quickly. "You have to look for a single father."

"I don't think-"

"That's brilliant!" Rachel exclaimed, ignoring Monica's protest. "You are brilliant!" Rachel patted Phoebe's shoulder.

"Well, duh... I mean, I was a very well-known and successful inventor in one of my previous lives."

Both Monica and Rachel stared confused at her.

"Okay…" Rachel said, unsure. "Let's talk about that some other time. Now, we have to look for Monica's potential boyfriend and maybe someone for you Phoebe."

"That's not necessary. I already have my eyes on someone," she replied proudly.

"Who? The hot dog seller?" Monica grimaced.

"No," Phoebe waved her hand, "I had that one picked out for Monica. I'm gonna get myself a date with that football player." She pointed toward that guy.

"Now see, he is cute," Rachel approved.

"Oh yeah…" she agreed dreamily. "Look Mon, there he is!"

"What? Who?" Monica asked, confused, frantically looking around her.

"Your dream man!"

"Forget it," Rachel said, defeated, "he is wearing a wedding band."

"Everything can be torn apart," Phoebe said casually.

"Phoebe!" Monica and Rachel exclaimed.

"What?"

"Never mind," Rachel dismissed. "Oh, look! There is our winner," Rachel said, pointing toward a man with a baby in his lap, sitting on a blanket, "and from what I can see, he is not married."

"Oh, you're right. He's perfect," Phoebe agreed, nudging Monica. "If he would only show his face."

"You guys are insane," Monica muttered. She really wasn't in the mood for this. So instead she looked into the bag for something to eat. It was lunchtime after all.

"Probably," Phoebe shrugged. "Look!" she almost screamed in excitement.

They all looked at the aforementioned man as he shifted in his seat. Monica, too, couldn't help being a little curious herself and dropped the search of looking for a sandwich. It was a good thing Joey wasn't here to judge.

When his face finally turned, a silence fell over the three friends.

"Nooo…" Rachel said, her eyes open wide in shock.

"He has a child?" Phoebe questioned, bewildered.

"He doesn't have a child," Monica dismissed. She also had a hard time comprehending what was happening in front of them.

"Has he kidnapped one, then?"

"No," Rachel answered. "Isn't that Janice's daughter?" she added after a moment of silence.

"That would make more sense," Monica agreed, not even turning her head to look at her friends as she answered.

"Does it?" Phoebe asked. "Because this is not how I picture our commitment-phobe friend with a baby. Are we sure this is him?"

"We could ask for his ID?" Rachel joked.

"Yeah, and totally freak him out," Monica replied, looking at her friends for a second, then turning back. "We could better not make our presence known. It's not an everyday occurrence we get to see Chandler this way."

"How come we have never seen him with her before?" Phoebe wondered out loud.

Monica thought that over before answering, "Joey told me that Chandler stays a lot of nights at Janice's, much to Joey's relief. I guess that the time he spends with the baby is when he is there. And he probably doesn't want us to be watching his every move when he is with the infant."

"Ah," Phoebe nodded.

They all watched as Chandler retrieved a toy from the bag with one hand, as he held onto the baby tightly with the other.

"I can't believe Janice lets Chandler babysit her daughter," Rachel said annoyed, receiving questioning glares from her two friends. "I mean, Ross has never let me alone with Ben, and Ross and I have been together much longer."

"Maybe Janice trusts him," Monica shrugged.

"Trusts him!" Rachel repeated incredulously. "I guess she hasn't heard the story of him leaving Ben on the bus yet."

"That was over a year ago," Monica defended Chandler. "And he was with Joey, whose only intention was to lure women."

"It does work," Phoebe commented. "Look around," she gestured with her hands. "Not only we are looking at him. There are at least two other groups of women who are checking him out. And I bet he doesn't even realize."

They turned their attention back to Chandler. They saw how Chandler lifted the child and put her on the blanket in front of him. He got on his knees, before lifting her again, encouraging her to stand on her own feet as he held onto her tiny hands. He smiled brightly as the little girl tried to put one foot in front of the other to walk to Chandler, before collapsing in his arms.

The girls watched in awe. And Monica felt her heart fill with a warmth as it slowly melted. "I guess that's what being in love does to him," she said softly, totally mesmerized. "He seems like such a natural."

"Too bad he is already taken. Right, Mon?" Phoebe commented, wiggling her eyebrows.

"Wha-what," Monica stuttered. "I don't like Chandler that way," she said defensively.

"Sure, you don't," Phoebe replied, rolling her eyes. "And to think he even offered you all of that."

"What do you mean, Phoebe?" Rachel asked, interested.

"When Monica was all upset she still didn't have children when Ben was born, Chandler suggested to get together and start a family if they were both forty and single."

"He didn't," Rachel said, shocked. Phoebe nodded. "Wow," she replied quietly before turning to Monica. "Well, what did you say?"

"That's not important," Monica muttered in response, not meeting their eyes.

"She got all defensive and demanded to know why he thought she wouldn't be married by then," Phoebe answered for Monica instead.

"I can't believe it!" Rachel accused Monica, who backed away a bit. "Our friend, who only recently freaked out about committing, practically proposed to you and you said that?! How much proof do you need that you own a very special place in his heart?"

Monica swallowed the lump in the throat. "Well, uh," she stuttered, but much to her relief she was saved by Phoebe.

"Janice is here," Phoebe announced and the attention was drawn back to Chandler, who stood up with the baby still in his arms, kissed Janice gently, before putting the little girl in the stroller. A minute later they walked away and out of the park.

Monica was glad to hear that her friends had dropped the previous subject and were now chattering about the football player Phoebe was interested in.

Her mind, however, was still on that topic. She hated to admit it, but Rachel was right. She never really thought of Chandler as dating material. Sure he was sweet, smart and cute, but also immature. But seeing him like she just saw him, like a boyfriend and a family man, she realized that being in love suited him well.

And if he were to propose when they had both reached the age of forty and were both available, she now knew for sure what her answer would be.


End file.
